


Archer gets destroyed at Squid Beatz

by Veritea



Category: Splatoon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:33:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24877756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Veritea/pseuds/Veritea
Summary: Just some Splatoon OC shenanigans
Kudos: 2





	Archer gets destroyed at Squid Beatz

**Author's Note:**

> I know the Squid Beatz arcade machine isn’t in the shoal. Just go with it.

It was awful, not having anybody that could possibly measure up to your skills. You were constantly in a league of your own, and even though it was wonderful to never have to worry about competition, it was ridiculously boring.

Nobody played Squid Beatz anymore. They were all too busy spraying ink at each other and screaming. That was fine with him. It meant he could stay at the top of the overall leaderboard in the shoal, his name forever laid out in glittering gold letters. 

Rolling back his shoulders, he examined the screen in front of him, swiping back and forth between various songs. He’d already mastered most of them, but he liked to go through all of them again just for the hell of it. 

He stopped at the Calamari Inkantation and flipped over to the hardest setting, hitting the button to start. 

The notes began coming and he hit them all perfectly, falling into a practiced rhythm as his head bobbed in time to the music. A little while into the song, the doors to the shoal slid open and a freezing blast of air made itself at home in the room. He didn’t bother to look up, although he could hear a couple of people talking and laughing. 

He focused back on the music, getting a few more seconds in before he felt someone’s stare fix on the back of his head. The ends of his tentacles curled, but he continued on for a little while. He wasn’t about to ruin his perfect run because someone was staring at him. 

“Where… what is the name of the song?”

Evidently, the staring person had gotten much closer to him while he’d been playing. He swore, and his hand jerked sideways. A series of notes flew by, all of them missed.

Perfect. 

Hitting the pause button and quitting the game, he turned around to face the cephalopod that had momentarily ruined his day. It was an octoling. She was already much taller than him, and the heeled boots she wore didn’t help matters. He had to admit, her gear was pretty fresh. She spoke with a thick Octarian accent, but her words were still understandable. 

“You don’t know what the song’s called? Really?”

“No,” she said, “I do not.”

“You don’t know who the Squid Sisters are?” He squinted at her in disbelief. He’d heard that octolings were kind of out of the loop, but there wasn’t a single cephalopod that he knew who hadn’t heard of the  _ Squid Sisters _ . 

“Squid sisters,” she repeated, testing out the words. “...Who are they?”

“You’re kidding.” 

“I am not,” she said, frowning. He sensed that he was beginning to get on her nerves. Leaning over, she examined the screen. “Calamari Inkantation. It sounds… familiar.”

“Of course it sounds familiar.” He threw up his hands. “Literally everyone knows that song.”

“You are not understanding.” Her tone grew more insistent. “That song is very important.”

Now she was just being confusing. Sure, the Inkantation was iconic, not to mention the fact that it was a really good song, but it wasn’t that important. Not really. 

He shrugged. “Well, anyway. Do you have more questions, or can I go back to… y’know.”

“May I try?”

It took all of his self control not to laugh. He settled for giving her a small smile and saying, “go ahead.”

Pursing her lips, she stepped forward and examined the controls, laying her hands on the buttons. She pressed start.

She fumbled a bit on the first few notes, nearly missing a couple of beats. As the song went on, though, she seemed to find her rhythm, and a strange look settled into her eyes as she continued. Before long, she was perfectly hitting most of the notes. He was aware that he was gaping like a fish, but he didn’t care.

That song had taken him a week to perfect. This probably was the first time she had ever played Squid Beatz, and she was doing amazingly. 

The song ended, and he looked over at her final score. 472/544.

What the shell.

He cleared his throat. “Beginners luck, huh?”

She gave him a tight smile. “I am not sure about that.”

Then she walked off to reunite with the three inklings she’d walked in with. 

Cod. She was annoying. 

The 472 on the screen taunted him as he restarted the game and placed his hands on the buttons again. 

She was annoying. But the problem was that she was also intriguing. 

Well, it wasn’t worth dwindling on. He was probably never going to see her ever again, anyway.

The notes began coming and for a few minutes, the world around him disappeared. 


End file.
